User blog:Romanoff Blitzer/The News Feed Part 4
The News Feed is a place to record, archive, and discuss WIXOSS news whenever I feel like it. __TOC__ August 9, 2016 The amount of news from last Saturday was absurd. It took me days to get it all on the wiki. Days. New LRIGs, SIGNI classes, and WX-15 First of all, we have the new Lostorage LRIGs. From left to right, they are: *Ril, the LRIG of Lostorage's main character Suzuko Homura. She will have support in the pre-built deck WXD-17 Red Honest, and uses Valor SIGNI with the Rise gimmick. *Mel, the LRIG of Lostorage's other main character Chinatsu Morikawa. She will get her support in the pre-built deck WXD-18 Green Berserk, and uses Machine Spirit: Cooking SIGNI. Cooking SIGNI are centered around Accessory, an ability that lets you equip SIGNI to your other SIGNI. Ril and Mel are related to a pale-looking mystery girl, but how is unknown. It might be something similar to the relationship between Tama, Mayu, and Yuki. *Nanashi, a black LRIG. She will get her support in WXD-19 Black Blind, which releases in November, a month after WXD-17 and WXD-18. Her SIGNI are Nature Spirit: Bacteria, which can use their Virus ability to infect the opponent's SIGNI Zones. *Ayaya Aya, a blue LRIG. She has no pre-built deck coming. She uses War Spirit: Trick SIGNI with the Trap mechanic, the details of which are not known. In addition to their pre-built decks, each of these LRIGs will appear in WX-15 Incited Selector, which releases in October 13 with WXD-17 and WXD-18. Along with LRIG support, WX-15 will introduce a heavy number of cross-color SIGNI: red Space SIGNI, blue Misfortune Insect SIGNI, green Wisdom SIGNI, and black Playground Equipment SIGNI. Wait, Wisdom SIGNI? Along with the new SIGNI classes of the Lostorage, they revealed the last two classes for the two unfulfilled Spirit/color combinations: Image Spirit: Wisdom, and Machine Spirit: Riding Machine. Wisdom SIGNI will normally be found in blue, representing famous scientists and scholars, but unusually will first appear in WX-15 shifted to green. Riding Machines are red, and have no scheduled appearances. It is likely that these classes will be used by Soui and Lalaru in the future. Along with the four known Lostorage LRIGs, there is a currently unnamed orange-haired white LRIG. She will use Living Spirit: Apparition SIGNI with the Layer mechanic. While she herself will not appear in WX-15, her Apparition SIGNI will. WX-16 and another pre-built deck will be released in December, featuring our mystery LRIG and another mysterious LRIG with cat ears... Haity?? New notation and WX-15 reprints Like every other third set, WX-15 comes with a number of Re-rarity reprints. WX-15 Re Bloody Slash.jpg|Bloody Slash WX-15 Re Cyua.jpg|Cyua, Natural Stone WX-15 Re Three Swords.jpg|Three Swords From now on, the Use Timings of ARTS is noted at the center right of the card instead of in the card text. Also, abilities that are triggered rather than being always active are now denoted as abilities. Coins Coins are one of the pivotal mechanics of the Lostorage era. Whenever the game begins or you grow, your LRIG gets a number of coins indicated at the bottom-right corner of the card. These coins may then be spent on various abilities, including certain LRIG abilities and ARTS with the Bet ability. It is not known whether LRIGs released before the Lostorage era can gain coins, and if so, how. In the anime Lostorage incited WIXOSS, coins represent the memories of Selectors. People wager these memories in Selector battles. The loser loses some of their memories, while the winner can insert new memories in their place. For example, if a girl loses to a boy, the boy can insert fake memories to make her believe that they're dating. Naturally, this opens the gate for more suffering, as it wouldn't be WIXOSS without suffering. Now, here's an example of a LRIG with coins. Meet Ultum, Wielder of the Key of Chalk. Note the number 3 in a circle at the bottom right corner of the card. This means it enters the field with three coins on it, added to any previous coins your LRIG might have. Ultum also shows off two more instances of new ability notation. Instead of having a lengthy sentence indicate whether an ability can only be used once per turn or has a use timing, the presence of such is instead indicated with a symbol in the cost area of the effect. As for the card itself, Ultum is quite strong. She has an ability that can consistently remove a SIGNI each turn and a defensive ability, reminiscent of Tawil. While Ultum will not work the same way as the regular, combo-based Umr, she will see play in a different type of deck, one that works more like a white deck than a black one. Ultum will be available in orders of Selector's Pack Vol. Umr & Tawil. WXD-17 Red Honest WXD-17 Red Honest is one of the two initial pre-built decks of the Lostorage era. Along with the typical 40 main deck/8 LRIG deck cards common to starter decks, it also comes with 5 coin cards. To show off the new mechanics, they revealed five cards from WXD-17: the main level 4 LRIG, the level 0, two ARTS with the Bet ability, and another SIGNI with Rise. Level 4 Riru.jpg|Ril, Memory of Desperation WD17-001 WD17-005.jpg|Ril, Memory of Innocence WD17-005 Flameless Isolation.jpg|Flameless Isolation WD17 Mighty Flash.jpg|Mighty Flash WD17 WD17-009.jpg|Goku, Western Monkey of the Sage's Stone WD17-009 *'Ril, Memory of Desperation' does not enter the field with any coins of her own, so she has to inherit coins from the LRIGs she's grown onto. When she enters the field, she banishes one of your opponent's SIGNI with 12000 power or less, larger than your typical red banish, and she can continue to lay on the offense with her expensive ability. While this LRIG is a good starter LRIG, its expensive means it'll likely be replaced with WX-15's LR-rarity Ril LRIG. *'Ril, Memory of Innocence' is your typical level 0 vanilla LRIG, with one difference: she comes into play with a coin. Considering the fact that WXD-17 comes with five coins, Ril will be able to accumulate five coins over the course of a game. Where do the other four come from? *'Flameless Isolation' is a simple and unexpectedly powerful card. For either or two coins, Flameless Isolation wipes out the opponent's entire board. No ifs, ands, or buts. We've come a long way since Back Against the Flame, haven't we? It also says a lot about the power level of a coin: a single coin can banish 1 whole SIGNI, while two can wipe the board. If a single coin is so powerful, how hard is it to get them? *'Mighty Flash' is a less flashy card, but not necessarily weaker. It banishes 1 SIGNI with power 7000 or less, and it can do so during the attack phase, giving Red another defensive ARTS it was sorely lacking. Furthermore, for a coin, it banishes SIGNI with power up to 20000! *Finally, we come to Goku, Western Monkey of the Sage's Stone, the main level 4 SIGNI of the deck. Goku is similar to other on-attack banish SIGNI, and it is the most comparable to Diabolos, Mortality of the Weak: by spending cards (with Rise/discard) and ener (Goku's power increase/Diabolos's level reduction), both can banish a SIGNI on attack. In exchange, Goku is less flexible, only able to banish the SIGNI in front of it, while Diabolos forces you to discard two cards. Since Diabolos is an infamously good card, Goku is just as likely to be a big roleplayer in Ril decks. By the way, if you were wondering where the name "Lostorage" came from, the word 記憶 in the names of Ril's LRIG cards means both "storage" and "memory." WXD-18 Green Berserk WXD-18 Green Berserk is the other of the two initial pre-built decks of the Lostorage era. Like its counterpart, along with the typical 40 main deck/8 LRIG deck cards common to starter decks, it also comes with 5 coin cards. They put more focus on Ril overall, but they still revealed a number of cards for Mel. WD18-005.jpg|Mel-Ready WD18-005 Many Battles.jpg|Many Battles WD18 Code Eat Hambur.jpg|Code Eat Hambur WD18 WD18-015.jpg|Code Eat Mayo WD18-005 *'Mel-Ready' is another typical level 0 LRIG... except, like Ril, it comes with coins. Unlike Ril, Mel comes with three coins. What this means for Mel's coin usage is unknown. Either she'll start with a greater amount of coins but gain them at a slower rate compared to Ril, or each of Mel's coins will have less of an impact than each of Ril's. *'Many Battles' does not show off any new mechanics or synergies, instead being a standard Lancer-type effect. In practice, it gives all of Mel's Cooking SIGNI Lancer, except it doesn't get around "unaffected" SIGNI like Arcgain, in exchange for being able to land the last blow on the opponent. For only two ener, it's a strong card. *'Code Eat Hambur' is this starter deck's main level 4 SIGNI. Hambur heavily interacts with Mel's Accessory mechanic, gaining power upon being accessorized and returning your Accessory SIGNI to the ener upon banish. Since Accessory SIGNI equip themselves from the ener, this allows you to commit Accessory SIGNI to the field without risking ener doing so. That said, however, Hambur doesn't do enough, as it provides nothing but a power increase, and it'll likely be replaced once Mel gets two level 4 Cooking SIGNI. (By the way, Hambur is wearing an egg accessory in her hair. Mel's Selector, Chinatsu, is voiced by Yuka Iguchi, who also voices Tsukihi Araragi from Bakemonogatari, who also wears an egg accessory in her hair.) *'Code Eat Mayo' is the example Accessory card they've given. By giving up 1 ener, you may equip Mayo to any of your SIGNI as an Accessory, and any Cooking SIGNI it is equipped to gains +2000 power. Power increases, in themselves, are lackluster, but if Mel gets enough Lancer effects or Accessory support, Mayo can turn out to be quite good. (If you're wondering where the chicken came from, mayonnaise is made from eggs.) Promo cards Lastly, many promo cards were announced. SP Pinch Defense.jpg|Pinch Defense SP Interwoven Fire and Fortune.jpg|Interwoven Fire and Fortune SP Don't Escape.jpg|Don't Escape SP Vanish Like Mist.jpg|Vanish Like Mist SP Ancient Gate.jpg|Ancient Gate First, Selector's Pack Vol. Deck Initial Benefits. These packs come with the Lostorage-era starter decks, Red Honest, Green Berserk, and Black Blind, and come with one of the five LRIG ARTS from WX-06 Fortune Selector. Each has new ART depicting a Lostorage LRIG, including the mysterious white LRIG. A good way to kick off a new player's starting collection, and a good way to spread these powerful cards to people who don't have them yet. PR-330.jpg|Twists and Turns PR-331.jpg|Oomurasaki, Phantom Insect WIXOSS Magazine Vol. 5 is coming out on September 17, including a reprint of Twists and Turns featuring Mel and two copies of the new Oomurasaki, Phantom Insect. Oomurasaki is a card in the same vein as Aldebaran and Hulahoop, being a defensive SIGNI for one of the Resona LRIGs. It may be used at one or two copies in Myuu decks, but it's not that useful. PR Servant Q3.jpg|Servant Q3 PR Servant T3.jpg|Servant T3 PR Servant D3.jpg|Servant D3 PR Servant O3.jpg|Servant O3 Copies of the Servant 3 cards will be given out at the WIXOSS World Championship 2015, as a prize for the finalists. PR Servant Q.jpg|Servant Q PR Servant T.jpg|Servant T PR Servant D.jpg|Servant D PR Servant O.jpg|Servant O PR Arc Destruct.jpg|Arc Destruct Finally, WIXOSS PARTY prizes. Arc Destruct, featuring Ril, is the CONGRATULATION! card for September and October 2016. Servants Q, T, D, and O will also given given out at WIXOSS Parties. Okay. That's it. I hope I didn't miss anything. Whew. August 6, 2016 WX-14 Succeed Selector was released a few days ago, but I procrastinated the news for that. Mostly because it takes a day for me to write these news posts, before which other people have already spread the news everywhere. Yeah, I do write good insights on new cards, but it undermines the point of these posts as an actual news feed. I'd like to shunt all the writing about the game into articles of their own instead of putting them in the news posts, but I'm too lazy to write articles... But that's no matter right now, because Lostorage incited WIXOSS info just came out at the WIXOSS SUMMER STORE event! Suzuko Homura.png|Suzuko Homura. Main character. Uses red LRIG. Voiced by Chinami Hashimoto. Chinatsu Morikawa.png|Chinatsu Morikawa. Main character. Uses green LRIG. Voices by Yuka Iguchi. New Student Suzuko.png|Suzuko is a transfer student Coin.png|"Coins" of some sort play some sort of role. Gain 1 mana crystal this turn only? Ikebukuro.png|Takes place in Ikebukuro Lostorage LRIG.png|New LRIGs. Unknown color (top left), Suzuko's red LRIG (top right), black LRIG shown in trailer (bottom left), Chinatsu's green LRIG (bottom right). Suzuko's LRIG has a rather heroic outfit. Possible Valor SIGNI user? Lostorage Images.png|Various pictures, including one or two boys and a girl with familiar-looking hair OP ED Announcement.png|OP sung by Yuka Iguchi, END sung by CYUA. RIP Kanon Wakeshima. Lostorage 2016.10.png|Anime starts in October Secondly, the Lostorage site just went up, so you can check the trailer and the cast list out yourself! July 22, 2016 Main site update. PR-307.jpg|Revival Exceed PR-307 PR-308.jpg|Alexand, Peerless Conquest PR-308 PR-309.jpg|Code Anti Kaizuka PR-309 PR-310.jpg|Revival Exceed PR-310 PR-311.jpg|Alexand, Peerless Conquest PR-311 PR-312.jpg|Code Anti Kaizuka PR-312 SP18-001.jpg|Tamayorihime, New Moon Miko SP18-001 SP18-002.jpg|Yuki, Miko of Falling in Love SP18-002 SP18-003.jpg|Hanayo Zero SP18-003 SP18-004.jpg|Code Piruluk SP18-004 SP18-005.jpg|Anne, Locus of Miracles SP18-005 SP18-006.jpg|Umr-Noll, Wielder of the Key of Creation SP18-006 WX14-CB01.jpg|Sun WX14-CB01 WX14-CB02.jpg|Akatsuki WX14-CB02 WX14-CB03.jpg|Serval, Phantom Beast WX14-CB03 WX14-CB04.jpg|Kitakitsune, Phantom Beast WX14-CB04 WX14-CB05.jpg|Okapi, Phantom Beast WX14-CB05 Interestingly, they haven't introduced any sets of LRIG support here. There's not much space in the set left to support a whole strategy, and I suppose they're saving Mayu for last, so instead, we get some new promos and collaboration cards. This, however, does not mean that the cards introduced here are less important. (Except the bikini pics. The bikini pics have no importance.) Revival Exceed is a card with a variety of uses, but few decks would use this card over another ARTS. Decks with useful utility Exceed 1 or 2 abilities will opt to use those instead of spending 1 ener and an ARTS slot on it, while most decks already have stronger defensive ARTS than "remove 1 SIGNI for 3 ener". Revival Exceed works best in Yuki, Pure White Miko decks for multiple reasons: Yuki doesn't have many strong ARTS options other than Summon Labyrinth, Revival Exceed is stronger than Art Boundary (it returns to deck rather than bounces), and it works well at both level 4 and level 5. Code Anti Kaizuka is a versatile card. On top of having all the capabilities of Code Anti Costaric, it serves as extra defense that costs absolutely nothing. Play Cthulhu Call, Four Color Miasma, Code Anti Mage, or Crisis Chance, and block an extra attack for free! Yeah, it's not reusable, but that's not a problem when most defensive cards are one-use anyways. The only real problem it has is that decks that would use it, like Sunspot Tama or Umr, don't have much level 3 SIGNI space to spare. Sun and Akatsuki are both from CROSS×BEATS REV. SUNRISE, a Capcom arcade rhythm game. Their collaboration with WIXOSS includes these two promo cards, as well as the game being featured at the impending WIXOSS SUMMER STORE event on August 7. The two cards form an obvious pair, with Sun and Akatsuki protecting each other from being removed and Akatsuki ener charging and bouncing an enemy SIGNI by downing Sun on-attack. However, it's hard to tell how effective these two cards truly are, as Arm/Weapon Tama is 1) a fairly unused deck and 2) reliant on using cross SIGNI with Four of Tamayorihime, Strangely United Flames, which these two aren't. Perhaps Sun could see play alone in a Weapon-based deck, but it isn't a Flathro... Okapi, Phantom Beast is a largely redundant card, as Midoriko is already quite capable of giving her SIGNI Lancer and boosting their power. On top of that, Okapi has a drawback, making it unlikely to see play. As a plus, though, the flavor text is amusingly weird. (If you think it's an incorrect translation, look at the card art.) As an aside, even though the okapi is a ground-based animal, this card is a Sky Beast rather than an Earth Beast. This is intentional, as WIXOSS development wanted to balance Midoriko's Sky Beast and Earth Beast numbers. Finally, we come to the most important card in today's set of spoilers: Alexand, Peerless Conquest. Alexand is a level 2 power 8000... Image Spirit: Valor? And what's this Rise ability? And why are its name and power boxes white? Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have our hook to what lies beyond WX-14! Rise is like evolution from Duel Masters: to put the SIGNI onto the field, you have to put it on top of one of your SIGNI, with certain conditions. Even if you put it on top of a downed SIGNI, it will enter the field upped as normal. When a Rise SIGNI leaves the field, all cards under it are put into the trash. Alexand is a potentially useful card, allowing you to protect SIGNI and push your SIGNI past offensive ARTS, but it is weakened by the fact that it fulfills no offensive function. Alexand doesn't fit into any current red decks; unsurprising, since it's a completely new card with a new class and a new ability. Still, Rise has great potential implications for gameplay, and I look forward to its usage among the LRIGs of Lostorage incited WIXOSS. July 15, 2016 Main site update, and on the proper day of the week, too. WX14-002.jpg|Code Piruluk APEX WX14-002 WX14-013.jpg|Code Piruluk Pi WX14-013 WX14-021.jpg|Curse of Spell WX14-021 WX14-022.jpg|Crisis Chance WX14-022 WX14-030.jpg|Code Love Heart †MCMR† WX14-030 WX14-073.jpg|Code Art †HMF† WX14-073 WX14-077.jpg|Code Art †DMF† WX14-077 WX14-079.jpg|Ice Finger WX14-079 PR-315.jpg|Battlefield of the Waning Moon PR-315 PR-318.jpg|Spinning Knowledge PR-318 PR-321.jpg|Crisis Chance PR-321 Around the release of WX-12 Replied Selector, spell Piruluk was the only Piruluk deck in the meta. It was a terribly efficient deck: between the draw engine of Code Piruluk Lambda, the discard of CRYSTAL SEAL and RAINY, the strong finisher of Code Heart AMS, and most importantly, Code Art CL, which made Piruluk's impactful spells easily spammable. Discard Piruluk with Code Piruluk Omega was not longer a thing, even with the release of WXD-16 Blue Petition. Therefore they decided to give Piruluk a new deck archetype more in line with the control aspect they envisioned for Piruluk. They came up with Code Piruluk VERMILION. A new twist on an old LRIG, combining Piruluk's spell support with defense, while at the same time colorshifting her current SIGNI into a new color to give her a trash and banish subtheme. It looked cool. It didn't work. Code Piruluk VERMILION never broke into the meta for various reasons. Her spell defense ability was too ener expensive and restrictive. They gave her two good defensive spells in TORNADO and Purple Stain, but TORNADO was conditional and Purple Stain was killed by refreshes. The extra defense was also redundant, since spell Piruluk's ARTS suite was enough to hold off the opponent while Piruluk set up her win condition. Ultimately, there was little to separate VERMILION from regular spell Piruluk except for more questionable card choices. It looks like they haven't stopped trying to make VERMILION work though. Enter Code Piruluk APEX. APEX is basically a bigger version of VERMILION. Instead of a down and freeze, she straight-up banish''es an enemy SIGNI. Instead of letting you cast spells during the attack phase with an extra fee, she lets you cast spells during the attack phase with a ''discount. It will invariably slot into VERMILION decks, especially since VERMILION can afford to use up a potential ARTS slot, but it won't necessarily make VERMILION better, as it retains all of VERMILION's strengths and weaknesses. To further differentiate VERMILION from spell Piruluk, WX-14 introduces a new level 5 SIGNI for Piruluk: Code Love Heart †MCMR†. MCMR serves multiple purpose in this deck. Not only does she provide an impressive suite of utility, she reshuffles important SIGNI into your deck and prevents refreshing, both of which improve on areas VERMILION was weak in. MCMR only faces competition from a few useful but relatively unimportant level 4 utility SIGNI, such as Code Heart SWT and Code Heart MPP, and with the restriction of CL, VERMILION will invariably run MCMR. Code Piruluk Pi is a mildly interesting card, designed to give Piruluk a blue/black LRIG from levels 2 to 5. Piruluk currently runs little to no level 2 SIGNI and can easily slot in Code Art †SC†, so Pi is easy to use. Now, turn your attention to its unusual grow cost: / × 1. For the first time, WIXOSS has a hybrid ener symbol. Intuitive enough, but it's surprising that no attention was drawn to it. Ice Finger is the last notable Piruluk card in this group, tailor-made to fit into the deck type. Ice Finger is primarily made to work with APEX, benefiting from both the and the discount of her Exceed 2, allowing you to banish 2 SIGNI with only 1 ! If necessary, Ice Finger can also be used with VERMILION, allowing you to down a SIGNI, banish a SIGNI, and draw two cards... at the expensive cost of 5 ener. Ice Finger competes with TORNADO and Purple Stain for space, and while it's not as conditional or vulnerable as they are, it's still not easy to use. Along with the new Piruluk stuff, Takara Tomy has spoiled some good one-off utility cards. Curse of Spell is clearly aimed at punishing spell Piruluk decks, eradicating all the spells in their trash and, as a brutal cherry on top, banishes one of their SIGNI if three spells were excluded this way. The card is especially aimed at Code Heart AMS, who is in the flavor text and artwork, and conveniently has an ability that requires three spells in the trash. However, Curse of Spell is not just useful against spell-heavy decks: it can also be used against decks that run only one particular spell, but at three or four copies, like Urith (Enigma Aura), Tama (Get Index), and Myuu (Catch Release). Curse of Spell is rather unreliable against most decks, however, relegating it to being a conditional tech card. Crisis Chance is a new ARTS in the same vein as Penalty Chance. Unlike Penalty Chance, Crisis Chance is much less conditional, and all three of its effects can be used as long as you've fulfilled their conditions. This card is clearly aimed at effects that wipe the field, ener, or hand entirely, like Piruluk's discard, Surrounded by Fire, or Retribution. Those have always caused some of the worst and most unfun situations to be in in WIXOSS due to their lack of counterplay. Like Penalty Chance, however, Crisis Chance will primarily be used by decks that can most consistently trigger its effects, such as Urith, which clears their own field with Enigma Aura, or Hanayo, which can empty their hand with Absolute Extinction. Battlefield of the Waning Moon, like Miria, Vermilion Messenger, is a Lord of Vermilion collaboration card, depicting Tsukuyomi. Like so many ARTS before it, Battlefield of the Waning Moon is a modal ARTS that is heavily pushed for tournament play. Unlike previous ARTS, though, its effects aren't impactful enough. The first ability can't kill level 4 SIGNI with 12k power, the second ability is unlikely to actually prevent any attacks. The third ability is an interesting ability with a wide amount of potential uses, but it's not impactful enough for the entire ARTS to be usable. Finally, one more thing. Soon, the WIXOSS Summer Store event will occur, and Summer LRIG Pack Vol.1 will be given out as prizes to the participants. Naturally, we get level 0 LRIGs in swimsuits. The list of LRIGs is Tama, Hanayo, Piruluk, Yuki, Anne, and Umr. ...Well, someone out there is probably interested. July 13, 2016 Main site update... in the middle of the week?! WX14-006A.jpg|Athle (HARD), Green Fourth Play WX14-006A WX14-006B.jpg|Athle (NORMAL), Green Second Play WX14-006B WX14-029.jpg|Wasli, Third Play WX14-029 WX14-042.jpg|Hulahoop, Third Play WX14-042 WX14-066.jpg|Gumboat, Second Play WX14-066 WX14-067.jpg|Ukiwa, First Play WX14-067 Of all days, why did they update on Wednesday? Anyways, Aiyai. Aiyai decks revolve around assembling the right cards in your hand and ener zone, then unleashing them on the opponent in an endless stream of death. When Beigoma attacks, it removes your SIGNI that have already attacked from the field, then replaces them with fresh ones through the effects of Juggym and Kurumed, which are then upped through the ability of Aiyai★JOKER. Beigoma is then upped by Freefall or Takoage, allowing her to attack again and set up even more fresh attackers. All in all, it's not unusual for Aiyai to kill the opponent from four or even five Life Cloth. However, since Aiyai★JOKER's ability is quite expensive to use repeatedly, Aiyai features many cards that let her ener charge during the attack phase. To this end, Athle (HARD) is very useful. Not only dies its its ability mean three extra hits on your opponent's Life Cloth, its in-built Luster is guaranteed to trigger at least 6 times! (Even more if you up your Beigoma or Swingride.) It faces competition from Freefall, which has a bit more synergy with Swingride and Aiyai★JOKER, but I'd lean towards this over Freefall for its ener charging. The other important card here is Wasli, which gives Aiyai a direct way to play SIGNI from the ener zone, and thus without resorting to the roundabout Juggym or Kurumed. Very useful if you don't have Takoage or some other necessary combo piece in your hand. Wasli's second ability works well with Aiyai's Resonas, all of which can discard Wasli from your hand for their play conditions, although Wasli can also be incidentally triggered by Piruluk, Alfou, or Urith. Hulahoop is a redux of the Space SIGNI Aldebaran. However, unlike Sashe, Aiyai does not have the deck space to use level 3 or 4 SIGNI that don't further her main strategy, so Hulahoop will probably be left unused. It's also easy to play around Hulahoop by attacking with a low-powered SIGNI. Gumboat is a card that is clearly meant to be used with Ukiwa. Neither of them are all that great, though: Gumboat is hard to use outside of Ukiwa, and Ukiwa doesn't do anything that Aiyai needs. Aiyai would prefer to stick with the current Gachapo/Karuta/Otedama engine, as that can trigger Aiyai★Raise's ability. July 9, 2016 Pedestrian update. SP19-001.jpg|Tama, Waxing Crescent Moon Miko SP19-001 SP19-002.jpg|Hanayo One SP19-002 SP19-003.jpg|Code Piruluk K SP19-003 SP19-004.jpg|Midoriko, First Girl SP19-004 SP19-005.jpg|Urith, Burning Eye Enma SP19-005 These promotional LRIG cards will come with the Blu-ray and DVD release of selector destructed WIXOSS. But really, we're all more excited for the movie subs than these cards. I guess the gold lettering and new art is nice. Note that here, "Midoriko" is spelled as 緑子 rather than 緑姫. This differentiates it from the original level 1 Midoriko, First Girl. July 8, 2016 Main site update. Today, there's big news, more than just card spoilers! But let's start with those first. WX14-001.jpg|Yuki, Miko of Utmost Happiness WX14-001 WX14-007.jpg|Yuki, Sky Miko WX14-007 WX14-018.jpg|Iona, Ancient/Maiden WX14-018 WX14-019.jpg|Iona, Over/Maiden WX14-019 WX14-023.jpg|Code Castle Versa WX14-023 WX14-044.jpg|Code Anti Zekofun WX14-044 WX14-050.jpg|Code Maze Reihai WX14-050 WX14-052.jpg|Code Maze Shingyo WX14-052 WX14-053.jpg|Code Maze Tessaku WX14-053 WX14-071.jpg|Code Anti Maigiri WX14-071 WX14-074.jpg|Code Anti Tayusou WX14-074 WX14-078.jpg|Code Anti Jomodoki WX14-078 Iona hasn't been meta for a long time. When she came out with WXD-07 Black Crave, she made an impact on the metagame immediately, something few other pre-built decks could lay a claim to, and she just got stronger and stronger with WX-04 Infected Selector and WX-05 Beginning Selector. However, that comes with the territory of being heavily featured in the anime, so after the anime stopped airing, all support for Iona dried up, and she stopped being meta right after the release of WX-06 Fortune Selector. She eventually got more support with WX-11 Destructed Selector, and not coincidentally, WX-11 corresponded with anime content (selector destructed WIXOSS) being released. That, however, wasn't enough to get Iona to meta status, and she has lingered on its outskirts ever since. To try and make up for it, though, Takara Tomy decided to give Iona twice the support in WX-14. Labyrinth Iona (or Yuki) is a returning decktype, but still relatively new, since it first came into existence in WX-11. Ithas many of the trappings of a white defensive deck, with some twists. While other white decks are focused on building themselves up, making their SIGNI wall impregnable with power boosts and "unaffected" abilities, Yuki targets the opponent's SIGNI. She removes their abilities, including pesky ones like Assassin, Double Crush, and Lancer, and moves them around SIGNI Zones to prevent them from mounting an offense, culminating in a devastating Labyrinth Romance to completely drain them of cards. After locking down the opponent, Yuki slowly clears the opponent's SIGNI and wins the game, either with Mayu, True Name Miko or the new Yuki, Miko of Utmost Happiness. Ancient Weapons Iona, on the other hand, is an entirely new concept. Before this, Iona had exactly two Ancient Weapons to her name, Code Anti Vimana and Code Ancients Necronomico, and the rest of her black SIGNI were Poison Fangs. Ancient Weapons were in Umr's domain at the time, and Poison Fangs were later divvied up and given to Hanare, leaving Iona with no unique black SIGNI of her own. (Maybe that's why they've shifted Iona into white so much recently.) Instead of trying to expand on Iona's Poison Fang suite, they've interestingly chosen to give her some new Ancient Weapons. Ancient Weapon Iona relies on the Iona LRIGs' ability to force attacks from your opponent's SIGNI. With those, she can force your opponent to attack into Code Anti Zekofun, Code Anti Maigiri, Code Anti Tayusou, and Code Anti Jomodoki, allowing you to banish their SIGNI while at the same time preventing them from denying you ener. Supporting this strategy is Iona, Ancient/Maiden, which lets you use her Exceed 1 to potentially drop Zekofun, Maigiri, Code Anti Hammerfake, or Code Anti Texahammer during your opponent's attack phase, not only blocking enemy SIGNI attacks but allowing you to remove enemy SIGNI with Iona's second Constant as well. Iona's most potent ability is her Exceed 2, which banishes your opponent's SIGNI when they attack... and since all of them are forced to attack, all of your opponent's SIGNI will wipe themselves out! (Except SIGNI that down themselves, that is.) They also gave us two vanilla level 4 LRIGs, but no one cares about those. Now for the even more important news... Mayu's Room updates! *Calm After the Typhoon and Code Ancients Hellboros can no longer be in the same deck. *Code Art CL can now only be used at 2 copies or less. *RAINY, Surrounded by Fire, and Servant Z can no longer be used. I can say that none of these bans were unexpected and all of these bans were deserved. If you didn't know, Calm After the Typhoon and Code Ancients Hellboros could be used in an interesting and degenerate way. Hellboros prevents cards in your opponent's trash from being affected by effects... including Calm After the Typhoon's. After both players placed their SIGNI on the field, Hellboros would prevent them from adding cards to their hand or ener, leaving them totally empty-handed and empty-enered. Often, the SIGNI placed would not matter, as Hellboros could easily wipe them out with her own effect, or the attacking player could easily return the perfect setup from their trash to their hand to finish the opponent. Hellspin, as it was called, was basically an unpreventable victory for the person who used it. Surrounded by Fire and Servant Z follow a similar vein, being used to prevent the opponent from mounting any defense. Surrounded by Fire was basically a ridiculously cheap Big Bang, wiping out the opponent's ener entirely and making it completely unsafe to even grow to level 4. Now, Yuzuki decks will have to risk more to wipe the opponent's ener, possibly returning to Yuzuki Five and Rekindling Effort. Servant Z was supposed to be a hard-to-achieve epic finisher for Servant decks, but Midoriko decks completely ignored the "hard-to-achieve" part with their en-masse ener charging, and combined with Midoriko, Piercing Woman Type Four's easy Lancer, it was a guaranteed kill from three Life Cloth. At least Retribution costs more ener and doesn't prevent guards. With the above three bannings, the lesson is "wiping out the opponent's ener is bad for game health, mmkay?" A whole 9 out of 20 bannings in the Mayu's Room list have to do with completely preventing your opponent from defending, and that says a lot... Meanwhile, in the other corner, we have Code Art CL and RAINY, both of which were restricted to weaken the currently popular Piruluk deck, although in a more subtle manner than the above three. Code Art CL is an extremely efficient card, allowing the Piruluk player to spam spells like incredibly easily, letting the player draw through their deck, charge their ener, and discards cards from the opponent's hand all at once. To weaken Piruluk's propensity at drawing and discarding, they completely banned RAINY, which was already a problem card and previously restricted to 1. RAINY's restriction was nearly irrelevant since CL could recover it easily, letting the player draw and discard with abandon. With RAINY gone, Piruluk will now have to choose between drawing with THREE OUT and discarding with CRYSTAL SEAL, and they won't be able to rip through the opponent's hand as efficiently as before. Ultimately, while all of these restrictions weaken the decks involved, none of the decks will be killed in the process, letting them maintain a presence in the meta. July 1, 2016 Main site update, now with Flathro Hanayo and Hanare! I've been working on this since Friday but had difficulties writing it due to me trying to understand the deckstyles involved. Apologies for the delay. WX14-004.jpg|Flaming Dragon, Poisonous Snake WX14-004 WX14-009.jpg|Hanayo Five, the Flame WX14-009 WX14-012.jpg|Flame Army Struggle WX14-012 WX14-020.jpg|Hanare, Dark One of Causing Trouble WX14-020 WX14-025.jpg|Flathro General, Attacking Crossbow Flame WX14-025 WX14-035.jpg|Flathro Lieutenant, Roaring Flame WX14-035 WX14-037.jpg|Advancing Flame Army WX14-037 WX14-046.jpg|Drei-Rodbor WX14-046 WX14-048.jpg|Toxic Spikes WX14-048 WX14-057.jpg|Flathro Corporal, Explosive Flame WX14-057 WX14-058.jpg|Flathro Private E-2, Small Flame WX14-058 WX14-059.jpg|Flathro Private E-1, Small Flame WX14-059 WX14-070.jpg|Vier-Villiers WX14-070 Flathro Hanayo plays differently from the regular aggro Hanayo deck. Many Flathro cards have abilities which look somewhat out of place in red, like deck search, self milling, card advantage, trash recovery, and putting SIGNI onto the field during the attack phase. All of these point towards a more midrange style of play, where you poke holes and maintain your hand instead of fully committing to all-out offense. In the early game, Flathro Hanayo wants to fill up their trash with Flathro SIGNI as quickly as possible with Flathro Sergeant, Flathro Lance Corporal, and Flathro Private E-1. If you're lucky, you can land Flathro Corporal ability as soon as you grow to level 2; if not, your offense begins at level 3, where Flathro Captain and Flathro Second Lieutenant banish your opponent's SIGNI. Here is where Flathro Hanayo diverges from regular Hanayo: where regular Hanayo would then continue to push for damage with double crushers, Flathro Hanayo attacks in a restrained manner, using Flathro Colonel and Flathro Lieutenant General to poke holes while using Flathro Lieutenant General to draw cards. The ace of the Flathro Hanayo deck is your level 5, Hanayo Five, the Flame, which is the biggest reason to run Flathros: not only does she provide you with an impenetrable defense as long as you have cards in hand, she has a very cheap trash recovery ability that provides card advantage, lets you reuse Flathro Lieutenant General for even more card advantage, and allows you to toolbox SIGNI out of your trash. This is especially helpful for using Flathro General, Attacking Crossbow Flame, the biggest and baddest Flathro SIGNI, as it usually ends up in the ener and then the trash due to being unplayable before level 5. As the newest LRIG, Hanare's cards in WX-14 do not introduce a new strategy, instead supplementing the Hanare strategy introduced in WX-13. Here they’ve given Hanare an Exceed-trigger level 3, a utility spell that banishes your own SIGNI (Toxic Spikes), and a level 3 down-for-card-advantage SIGNI (Drei-Rodbor), all of which continue to show that they intend for Hanare to be on the same level as the original five LRIGs. By the way, that last one has an interesting history lesson behind it. Hanare decks revolve around playing Poison Fang SIGNI and squeezing all utility out of them by downing them for their own effects and putting them into the trash, after which Hanare brings them back to repeat the cycle. Hanare decks start their aggression in the early game, using Ein-Dagger and Ein-Lucbor to get rid of small enemy SIGNI while recycling them with Zwei-Cebor. At the same time, Hanare builds up her ener with Drei-Lacquer, Aquamarine, Natural Stone, and/or Cyclamen, Natural Plant. Level 4 is when Hanare kicks into overdrive, using Vier-Patra and Vier-VX to bring death to your opponent's SIGNI while constantly recycling Drei-Agrippina with Hanare, Dark One of Salvation to give the −8000 power needed to use Vier-Patra's powerful . ...That's the state of WX-13 Hanare, anyways. Cards such as Drei-Dio Daughter have not yet figured into the equation. Lastly, to go along with the black and red-colored reveals, they've introduced another new LR Chain ARTS: Flaming Dragon, Poisonous Snake. As it requires two red ener, it's more likely to see play in red decks than black decks, which is just as well, as red has had a dearth of defensive ARTS for a long time. (Out of all five of them, this is the third unrestricted one.) Flaming Dragon, Poisonous Snake is a powerful ARTS, able to banish two SIGNI easily, and can even serve as an Oversalvage to allow red decks to assemble the SIGNI they need for that last offensive push. It can even wipe out all of your opponent's Assassin, Lancer, and Double Crush SIGNI, a strong, niche, "just in case" ability. While this effect's usefulness against Yuzuki is limited by the existence of Surrounded by Fire, it's very useful against Hanayo, Midoriko, and FREEZE THROUGH decks. As an expensive defensive ARTS, it also competes for space somewhat with Dragon Extinguishing Chain, as few decks can amass the ener needed to use both in one game without giving up on more important utility. Overall, however, good ARTS. June 26, 2016 Another set of collab cards was just announced. No, they're not promos. They're in WX-14. What are non-collab cards doing in a set whose number isn't divisible by 3? WX14-CB03.jpg|Serval, Phantom Beast WX14-CB03 WX14-CB04.jpg|Kitakitsune, Phantom Beast WX14-CB04 These are apparently from a Nexon-developed mobile game called Beast Friends (けものフレンズ). I've never heard of it, and it's nothing to worry about. I do find it interesting how these cards look like they fit into WIXOSS, though. Not out of place. Serval, Phantom Beast seems to take after Ruolite, Natural Stone, another card in the same set that has an effect depending on whether your opponent's LRIG is level 4 or 5. However, where Ruolite was inconsequential, Serval is actually useful, gaining Lancer rather than just gaining power. Kitakitsune, Phantom Beast is a fairly inconsequential power booster. Midoriko decks either use Midoriko, Abundant Girl Type Three or are going for the full Seiryuu/Souryuu gambit, and as an early-level strategy, standalone cards like Miao or Monkey are preferable. June 24, 2016 Main site update. Fallen angels and five-color plants everywhere. WX14-005.jpg|Sea and Sky Becoming One Blue WX14-005 WX14-008.jpg|Tamayorihime, Miko of the Moment of Dyeing WX14-008 WX14-015.jpg|Midoriko, Harmonious Girl Type Three WX14-015 WX14-017.jpg|Yggdra, Green Natural Plant WX14-017 WX14-028.jpg|Baobaboon, Natural Plant Flower Princess WX14-028 WX14-031.jpg|†Arcgain†, Archangel of a Thousand Sufferings WX14-031 WX14-040.jpg|Yashi, Natural Plant WX14-040 WX14-047.jpg|†Archold†, Spurting Shadow of the Future WX14-047 WX14-063.jpg|Sotetsu, Natural Plant WX14-063 WX14-065.jpg|Satoukibi, Natural Plant WX14-065 WX14-068.jpg|Haibisu, Natural Plant WX14-068 WX14-069.jpg|Flower Song WX14-069 WX14-072.jpg|†Michael†, Abolished Harmony of Reconciliation WX14-072 WX14-075.jpg|†Haniel†, Death's Shadow of Seeking WX14-075 PR-316.jpg|Saturate Gut PR-316 PR-317.jpg|Succeed Destruct PR-317 Here we have two strategies: the black Angel Sunspot strategy, and the five-color Midoriko Plant strategy. The black Angel Sunspot strategy presented revolves around playing high-powered black Angels like †Michael†, Abolished Harmony of Reconciliation or †Haniel†, Death's Shadow of Seeking during the early game and getting what you need with †Arcgain†, Archangel of a Thousand Sufferings and †Archold†, Spurting Shadow of the Future, all while filling your trash, slowly but surely, to grow into Sunspot. (I personally wouldn't recommend Haniel, since high-powered SIGNI without utility are generally useless, and Michael is suspect as milling one card isn't terribly strong and Belphego can already do that.) Tamayorihime, Miko of the Moment of Dyeing is the main level 4 of this strategy: it puts a black card into your trash for Sunspot, and it has a measly and unprecedented grow cost of 1 , letting you cram as much black cards in your deck as possible. With Three of Tamayorihime, Fiery Gun Dance, it can even be grow into for free! However, I would not advise you to totally minimize your white grow costs. Between two Arcgains, two Valkyries, two Hestias, and eight Servants, Tama has too many quality non-black cards to not use. If you're planning on using Energe, Tamayorihime, Sixteenth Night Miko + Get Index, or Modern Boundary, you might have to fit more white cards in. Still, Sunspot decks finally have the opportunity to completely minimize their white costs. Furthermore, Takara Tomy is finally supporting the Sunspot strategy, where as before Sunspot decks had to sift through sketchy non-LRIG-restricted cards to assemble a questionable deck that had one too many white cards to consistently grow. The five-color Midoriko Plant strategy here revolves less around running cards from all colors and more about forcing Snorop, Natural Plant Princess. It aims to have multiple colors in the Ener Zone at all times to boost the power of Sotetsu, Satoukibi, and Haibisu (again, don't run these), then playing the new Resona Yggdra, Green Natural Plant and shitting all over the opponent with Snorop and Yashi. Meanwhile, you're using Midoriko, Harmonious Girl Type Three and Flower Song to ener charge tons off of your Plant SIGNI, not to mention that you'll still be running regular Plant staples like Gauche Agnes, Mandore, and Rosary. Beware, however, as Yggdra is fragile, and if your Yggdra is swatted, you won't be able to gain a Life Cloth off of Snorop. Note that with Yggdra, you can use Five Rainbow any time you have 6 or more ener. While Yggdra prevents you from using colorless SIGNI or spells, she didn't say anything about ARTS! Hehe. Aside from that, there are some strong individual cards here. Sea and Sky Becoming One Blue is the latest in the series of enemy-colored LR-rarity power ARTS, and it's a strong ARTS indeed, being a Don't Move with massive utility attached to it. It can be a Don't Move that costs a net total of two ener, or a Don't Move that draws you to cards, or it can add tons of cards to your hand... the list goes on. Baobaboon, Natural Plant Flower Princess, despite being a Plant, seems very detached from the above Plant strategy. It can't search for Lion or Mammo, and Midoriko has no synergy with Gabrielt or Hellboros (Calm After the Typhoon excepted). Perhaps WX-14 will bring more off-color unrestricted level 5 SIGNI. More importantly, though, Takara Tomy has noticed how useless level 5 SIGNI are before level 5, so they decided to give Baobaboon a useful pre-5 effect. Sure, it's just an Ener Charge, but it has mildly interesting applications (like a surprise ARTS after Yuzuki burns all of your Ener). Currently, however, there are no decks Baobaoon can fit into. Finally, we have two promos to come with the limited edition selector destructed WIXOSS Blu-ray/DVD release, on August 24. We've been waiting an eternity for subs, but now we know how much more eternities we have to wait for. First, however, marvel at the promotional cards. First we have Saturate Gut, which is... a copypaste of Urith's Grave Gut, except for Hanare and Poison Fangs. This shows two things. One, they really want to push Hanare as a viable deck. They have given Hanare much better treatment than most LRIGs. Two, they really want to push Hanare as Urith's only yuri friend. Urith has given Hanare much better treatment than most people. Second, we have Succeed Destruct, depicting Mayu similarly to how she appears on the packs of WX-14. For absolutely no ener cost, you get three very useful and non-conditional effects, one of which is a defensive banish effect that can kill Arcgain! Unless you're using an Exceed LRIG. Then you get nothing. Of course, many Exceed LRIGs are already some of the most often-used LRIGs in the meta, so another card to shift that balance is nice. Note the flavor text of Succeed Destruct. After two seasons of anime, a year of no anime, and half a year of agonizingly waiting for movie subs, we may finally get the resolution we sought, and once we are free, we can finally turn our heads towards Lostorage... the next chapter. June 17, 2016 Main site update. The entire contents of Selector's Pack Vol. Umr & Tawil have been revealed! SP17-001.jpg|Soap Wave SP17-001 SP17-002.jpg|Ancient Wave SP17-002 SP17-003.jpg|Tobiel, Sun Staff of Midsummer SP17-003 SP17-004.jpg|Code Anti Nyarctho SP17-004 SP17-005.jpg|Code Anti Hastur SP17-005 SP17-006.jpg|†Valkyrie†, Unforgettable Phantom Funeral SP17-006 WX14-016.jpg|Laborious Work WX14-016 WX14-024.jpg|⁑Mouth⁑, Holy Shield of Truth WX14-024 WX14-034.jpg|⁑Merli⁑, Deluge of Water Currents WX14-034 WX14-064.jpg|Minimali, Thoroughness of Omission WX14-064 I've never been a fan of non-defensive ARTS, especially in a defensive deck like Tawil, so I'm not a fan of Soap Wave. Yes, it can be used to further your offense, and it can be used to protect your SIGNI, but Tawil should already be able to run her offense by herself, and she can already easily recover her SIGNI. Soap Wave doesn't serve any purpose Tawil needs. Ancient Wave, on the other hand, is insane. At worst, it's a conditional and cheaper Bloody Slash, and Bloody Slash is a strong card. As the effects increase, the effects only become crazier and crazier. The only problem is that the last effect requires the player to grow to 5, and neither of Umr's level 5 LRIGs are better than Umr-Fyra, Wielder of the Key of Chaos. However, if Ancient Wave proves strong enough, it might be enough for people to start running the level 5s. Tobiel, Sun Staff of Midsummer provides another offensive engine for Tawil, one that is easier to use than the abilities of Tawil herself. Tawil decks don't have a lot of deckspace, however, so Tobiel will probably be used as another useful 1-of Angel. Code Anti Nyarctho (a fusion between Code Anti Nyarlatho and Code Anti Cthogha, it seems) potentially solves one of Umr's problems: it can wipe the board, but can't get around the defensive ARTS fueled by the ener your opponent gained from their board being wiped. As an on-attack banish effect, Nyarctho can avoid giving your opponents ener, allowing Umr to push for the win. Previously, Umr only had Code Anti Ropolis, which you could only have one of on the field unless you ran the vanilla level 4 (and you don't want to do that). However, as potentially useful Nyarctho is, it does fight for space with Umr's level 4s, notably Nessie and Partheno. (Yog-Sothoth is irreplaceable.) I'd try Nyarctho ahead of the other two, as the other two don't do anything Umr doesn't already have access to through other avenues. Code Anti Hastur is a simple ener charger, and a strong one. One of Umr's other problems is her relative lack of ener, something Hastur fixes. Hastur goes beyond fixing that problem, really. †Valkyrie†, Unforgettable Phantom Funeral is a strange card. It can be used in Tawil, but Tawil doesn't have many cards that put SIGNI onto the field by an effect. The two most prominent are Soap Summon and Wish Crisis, one of which is a spell you have to draw into. Umr can revive SIGNI easily, but Valkyrie isn't an Ancient Weapon, making her potential inclusion in Umr awkward. Valkyrie would have fit best into Tama (Sunspot or otherwise), but this Valkyrie has the most nonsensical limiting condition of all cards in the game. ⁑Mouth⁑, Holy Shield of Truth has a silly name, so I'd wager that the English word "mouth" sounds cooler to Japanese people that it does to us. More to the point, though, its bounce ability is hard to trigger with the current package of cards Anne typically runs. Marche can trigger Mouth easily, but Marche isn't very good otherwise, and Suiboku and Cellon cannot be easily triggered by you. It is possible that Mouth is better supported by cards in this set. ⁑Merli⁑, Deluge of Water Currents is almost literally Arcgain. It may single-handedly turn Anne two-stop into a thing. It might sound strange to you, but despite being the most defensive LRIG in the game, Anne has quite a few offensive options. The biggest is Destruction Spirit, which is quite close to the infamous Gathering Protection, but Laborious Work, ⁑Thinker⁑, Embodiment of Meditation, and Pure Treasured Sword are all offensive in nature as well. Combined with Mouth, and Anne may be taking a more offensive role this set. Minimali, Thoroughness of Omission has weird art. June 10, 2016 Main site update. PR-305.jpg|†Ayase Kamiyugi†, Angel Killer PR-305 WX14-011.jpg|Flame Gained, Fire Lost WX14-011 WX14-026.jpg|Suikaline, Natural Stone WX14-026 WX14-036.jpg|Ruolite, Natural Stone WX14-036 Both Flame Gained, Fire Lost and Suikaline, Natural Stone are strong cards. Suikaline is a greatly pushed version of Rin, Natural Stone, having a fairly consistent Assassin ability. (The banish prevention ability isn't that great.) Flame Gained, Fire Lost does work as a draw spell in a pinch, but it works better as a defensive ARTS, even if it creates card and ener disadvantage. More interestingly, though, Flame Gained, Fire Lost shows what the developers consider inside Red's slice of the WIXOSS color pie. Red is allowed to get effects like card draw or efficient banish, but at the cost of some uncontrollable disadvantage (Absolute Extinction, Hanayo Four, Snow, Moon, Wind and Fire) or tribal restriction (Carnelian, Natural Stone, Fiery Spring Landscape). These effects move red away from being the monolithic aggro color, and I look forward to seeing how they expand its slice of the pie. †Ayase Kamiyugi†, Angel Killer is a collaboration card with the Z/X TCG, its second one with WIXOSS, the first being Azumi Kagamihara. Unlike that one, which was just a boring level 0, Ayase is a lot more interesting. I could talk about its abilities, but let me geek out about Z/X first. Long story short, Ayase lived happily in a small village with her parents until they and everyone else were brutally slaughtered by angels, after which she sought revenge. She eventually found a partner (Sieger, that's the crown-wearing panther on the left) and started killing angels indiscriminately until she had a few run-ins with a nice boy named Asuka Tennoji, after which she lessened her ruthlessness and started tracking down the angel responsible for ordering the destruction of her village. She eventually found the one responsible, Aquarius Gambiel, who's quite the psychopath. Defeated by Ayase, but not killed, Gambiel put on an evil mask and became half-demon, and Ayase is currently trying to track down and destroy the rest of the masks. It's a point of irony that the card is an Angel SIGNI while Ayase hated angels, but in a certain alternate timeline, she does become an angel. The card itself is rather interesting. Its first and second abilities aren't terribly important: you don't want to remove your own SIGNI and open a hole in your defenses in the first ability, but it may be useful in a pinch, and the second only affects Tama and Tawil. That's why they introduced a third ability to keep the card functional, and it's quite a strong ability, removing a fairly sizable SIGNI for only one ener. Due to its color and class, it will likely only see play in Tama, Sunspot or otherwise, as Tawil typically doesn't run a black splash. With all these black Angels, that might change, though... Category:Blog posts